When it comes to quick communication some tools, like Slack, will even give you a notification before or after you send a message stating which timezone your recipient is in. “The hardest thing to do is to make sure you don’t end up working 12-hour days routinely,” Kelly notes. Meanwhile, if you’re not working in the same country as your broader team, “don’t be afraid to ask for meetings that are outside of others’ timezones.” As someone who’s managed marketing initiatives at companies with remote employees and offices around the world, I’ve seen what successful and unsuccessful international collaboration looks like first hand. But, despite all the benefits of having a diverse global staff, companies are still trying to figure out how to work successfully across different timezones. Synchronous communication (“sync”) is when discussions are conducted in real-time, allowing for immediate responses and feedback between colleagues.

• Check out our post on 100+ fully remote companies for more examples.
• You can, however, overcome these challenges with the right tools and approaches.
• It’s always important for managers to keep in touch with their teams, but this is especially true when workers are spread across the country or globally.
• Within Google Calendar, one of my absolute favorite ways to stay productive while working at home or freelancing, you can have your time zone, and a second one.
• Messages are clear and easy to grasp at a glance with just one simple emoji.

For example, implementing a virtual project management platform can help teams coordinate assignments, track individuals’ progress on tasks, and boost overall efficiency. Join us as we go through common challenges of managing remote team members across time zones and five practical tips to overcome them. When working with teams in different time zones, it’s also worth considering how you can automate processes to maximize employees’ productivity. Consider which time-consuming background tasks could be suitable for AI to make the most of your international team’s time.

Five tips for scheduling meetings and communicating in a distributed workforce

Almost by definition, remote work tends to facilitate isolation among team members, and the matter only gets worse once we add the time zone dimension to the equation. Of course, not everything is best when it comes to collaborating across multiple time zones. With such a big gap between certain time zones, remote teams will inevitably experience delayed responses and difficulty scheduling meetings. On many HubSpot marketing teams, if we schedule a meeting that requires people in other timezones to wake up early or stay up late, we try to be empathetic to those colleagues in some way.

Too much messaging or calling your team members can cause unnecessary stress, inhibit productivity, and eventually lead to a hostile work atmosphere. Managers should instead give their workers some leeway when it comes to setting work schedules or deadlines, as long as they deliver high-quality results. Therefore, it’s reasonable to switch meeting schedules every month or quarter.

Tips for Remote Working Remotely in Various Time Zones

Whether you’re working in-office, remotely, or in a global office outside of your main headquarters, make sure you are open to discussing your own work hours and boundaries with your dispersed team. Similarly, invite your teammates to discuss their own work hours and boundaries so that way you all are familiar with the different timezones your everyone is working within. When international collaboration is done poorly, you might run into frustration from colleagues, all sorts of misalignment, and a sense of personal and professional disconnection across teams. These negatives aren’t helpful for retaining employees or building a positive company culture. We often assume when we’re talking to someone new that they’re in the same time zone as us.

By creating a physical separation between work and home life, you can help to maintain a healthy balance and avoid burnout. The more aware you become of your colleagues in different timezones and their backgrounds, the more empathetic and the deeper your connections https://remotemode.net/ will be. Ultimately you will be more productive as you begin to understand them on a deeper level. For the people who have learnt the value you can get from recording meetings however, they have become a foundational tool for them, especially when working remotely.

Google Business Profile

This is especially hard if you tend to move around from city to city or country to country, or if you just moved, and crossed time zones, like from Florida to Texas, for example. The name “instant” suggest live synchronous communication, but asynchronous communication is still a big part of using instant messaging tools like Slack, MS Teams, and Flock. One-off videos and screen captures shouldn’t be the only place that teammates can turn for information and context in real time. Building an internal wiki that documents best practices and processes is critical, and there are a world of tools out there to help including Notion, Confluence, and even Google Drive. When you work from a different country, or a different timezone, you need to sit down with your team and communicate what your acceptable working hours are. By opening up and express your working hours, your colleagues may also start expressing their preferences.

Sometimes, you may need to adjust your schedule to accommodate a meeting or deadline for a colleague in a different time zone. Be open to these adjustments, as they can help create a more harmonious and productive work environment. When scheduling meetings, tools like Doodle or Calendly can help you find a time that works for everyone.

Use a Meeting Scheduler

Ensure that you have your boundaries set in place, but aim to have a few hours each day that remain open. Before sending a resource to your international teammates, read through it from their perspective and ask yourself what questions they might have. Remember, too little information could result in a day of wasted work as they wait for an answer. Either way, agree on how employees mark their daily hours on a public calendar.

For example, if you have a few messages you want to send, but notice it’s 9 p.m. In another employee’s timezone, you might either want to avoid sending til the morning or schedule an email. “When you work in different timezones, it’s important to be aware of when you’re sending a message or email,” says Rebecca White, a junior writer for the HubSpot Blog. Alternatively, Kelly says you could also consider picking a few days per week where you’ll work on another international team’s schedule entirely. “If you’re working two timezones that don’t overlap much, why not split your shift into two instead of doing the same number of hours consecutively?” asks Kelly.

Working Remotely in Different Time Zones: 6 Tips for Remote Work Success

For example, writing an email, sending a Loom video, or leaving a voice message for someone so they can respond to it whenever works best with their schedule (and yours). Besides, fixed schedules might make a group of people within a certain timezone constantly need to stay late. That’s why the last important strategy that works for us as a remote team is to get together https://remotemode.net/blog/10-tips-on-working-in-different-time-zones/ in person often. At Buffer, we meet somewhere in the world once a year for a weeklong company retreat. We’ll work together throughout the week and enjoy some bonding time with fun group activities, too. When you’re not in the same place with your teammates and you don’t have set work hours, one thing that becomes really important is frequent, clear communication.